Vibrantly colored sunsets, stress relief and better health are among the reasons given for why people enjoy living on the shorelines of Lake Erie east of Cleveland.

Candace Kiel, a self-proclaimed beach girl, purchased her house in Mentor-on-the-Lake two years ago after watching the sunset over a glass of wine with a friend and asking herself why can’t she live on the water.

She called a friend who was a Realtor and six weeks later was signing the papers on her dream home.

Kiel noted that having a house on the lake has been beneficial to her health and has brought a sense of calm to her.

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“This is like a different way of living,” she said. “You never want to go anywhere.”

Kiel finds beauty in watching the storms roll in and the lightning flashing across the lake, although she notes that sometimes the winds and storms can be a little scary.

Kiel is an avid kayaker spends as much time as possible in the lake.

“I kayak and I can go right down the steps and drop the kayak in the water,” she said. “We also can bring the boats from the lagoon right up to the beach here.”

When asked if there were any cons to living on the lakefront, Kiel replied, “I don’t think you can really put living on the lake and cons in the same sentence, there are none.”

Kiel, who is a retiree, notes that it’s all about the sunsets and the wine, and it doesn’t get any more picturesque than the view she has.

Gary and Arlene Straus, who bought their lakefront home in Eastlake in 1986, believe one of the main benefits to living on the lake is the ability to come home every day to a view unspoiled by development.

Gary and Arlene both recall sitting in the hot tub one winter night and watching while a coyote pulled fish from the lake and watching the Aurora Borealis.

“The sky was blue and green, just like you see in the pictures from Alaska,” Gary said. “You don’t see that away from the lake.”

Gary notes some of the things they see regularly on the lake, such as Coast Guard rescues, paragliders and fishermen.

“We get to see incredible stuff every day, but the sunsets each night are just drop dead gorgeous, and the change of the seasons, the ice coming, the storms coming, the waves pounding are things we wouldn’t see if we lived off the lake,” he said.

According to Gary when their children were growing up they were able to experience chasing bugs and swimming in the lake. To them it was like being in the country even though they live in the city.

Their son and daughter-in-law have just moved back from California and are now staying with them while they search for their own house on the lake.

“People are willing to move to the lake and spend the extra money,” Gary said. “In Ohio, Cleveland area lakefront living is so much more affordable than anywhere else in the country.”

He notes that for what his son was paying a month for a two-bedroom apartment in California, they could get a decent house on the lake here in Northeast Ohio.

According to Gary the only drawback he can find to lakefront living is the wind can be fierce.

“It can be real intimidating, because when you get a really bad storm you can feel the pressure of the wind,” he said.

“There have been a few times when I wondered if I am going to have a house left when it’s really windy,” Arlene said. “Sometimes it makes me nervous, but I can only recall one time when I have gone to the basement when there was wind and I think there was a mini tornado and the sirens went off.”

Arlene notes that lakefront living is great; that it doesn’t matter what the weather is there is always something to look at, even in the winter.

According to Gary, the lake has a huge calming effect. He can have the most stressed-filled rotten day and come home and go to the back of the house to view the lake and the stress just melts away.

“We had my mom here who has Alzheimer’s and she just stared at the lake it was very peaceful and soothing for her and what she needed,” Gary said.

Tom and Leslie Cooke have lived in their lakefront home in Euclid for 13 years and feel like they are on a 365 days a year vacation.

Leslie describes the lake in the winter as a frozen tundra that goes all the way to Canada, while Tom describes it as looking like a white desert.

According to Leslie, the sunsets they view from their home are better than any they have seen anywhere else.

“We were in Saint Petersburg and Key West this past winter, and both of us said to each other our sunsets are so much better, so much more colorful and so much more vibrant,” Leslie said.

They look forward to the sailboat races in the summer when, according to Leslie, you can see 250-300 sailboats go by.

Tom does note a few downsides to lakefront living such as the wind during the winter can get pretty nasty, and the afternoon sun can be intense.

Tom notes that the taxes are higher due to the valuation of their house being higher, but Leslie notes that the view is priceless.

Being able to swim and snorkel, it’s like being on a resort, Leslie said. She sees living on the lake as paradise and notes that occasionally she has to pinch herself and realize how blessed they are to live on the lake.

Ernest Hisey of the Hisey Group, LLC from Howard Hannah, thinks living on the lake is one of the biggest things in this part of Ohio.

“People are always looking to purchase lakefront homes,” Hisey said. “It’s a big demand, lakefront sells and prices are firm. Demands for lakefront has always been great, the values do not drop, they are very secure.”

Hisey describes lakefront living as a romantic thing.

“It’s a very nice thing to see looking at the sunsets, the sunrises, boats going past, changing waves and the weather,” Hisey said. “It’s almost a different style of life with lakefront property.”

According to Hisey, lakefront properties, whether it’s vacant land or lands with homes on them, do sell for more than the same amount of land off the lake. People purchasing lakefront homes are going to be paying premium prices.

Hisey notes there are some additional costs to owning lakefront property such as mortgage flood plan insurance.